September 06, 2007

Majority of humans are not now farmers: study

A related question: how much of the history of information has been shaped by the divide between urban and rural ways of life? For example, have many of the great libraries been associated with towns and cities? Have rural information systems - the Incan quipu, the Australian songline - had the same status as urban ones?

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Not that this answers your question, but you might be interested in the Warumungu Community Digital Archive Project (if you aren't already familiar). Based on a presentation I heard, it sounds like a really thoughtful instance of tools arising from urban modernity being repurposed for rural, traditional knowledge systems.

The Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) is a long term project being conducted among the Wik people of Western Cape York, Australia. Digital media is being used to preserve and teach a knowledge system that is tens of thousands of years old. These people are not farmers but hunter gatherers, however it is a land management system that lies at the heart of the Wik culture. As well there is the Digital Song Lines project:

The Australasian CRC for Interaction Design(ACID) is host to an innovative and exciting project aimed at conserving Indigenous heritage using virtual reality technologies.

Bryan at Infocult made reference to a demographic study of labor........Bryan then proposed the question "How much of the history of information has been shaped by the divide between urban and rural ways of life?"
This could be a great thesis topic. I thought about the way land is an information system in traditional Aboriginal cultures.......